News Galloway: punished for defending himself?

Galloway faces Commons suspension
George Galloway
Mr Galloway has strongly denied receiving money from the Iraqi regime
Respect MP George Galloway is facing suspension from the House of Commons for 18 days, following an investigation by Parliament's standards committee.

The MPs say he "damaged the reputation of the House" in his comments about the inquiry into his Mariam Appeal charity.

The suspension was the result of him "concealing the true source of Iraqi funding" and "calling into question" the integrity of standards watchdogs.

Mr Galloway said he was being punished for the "robust way I defended myself".

He has always denied receiving money from Saddam Hussein's regime.

The MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, who was expelled from the Labour Party in 2003 following outspoken comments about the Iraq war, has said the probe by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards and the Committee on Standards and Privileges was "politicised".

I just watched the press conference with Mr Galloway and I have to say I kind of see why he's a bit miffed, he faced allegations of "concealing the true source of Iraqi funding" - he himself being vehemently anti government on it's foreign policy - A charge that proved totally false as he had never even asked about the sources. So instead of the committee apologising for the false accusations, and for falsely trying to slander and liable his reputation. They have chosen to suspend him, not because of the reasons for the enquiry, but because of his defence of himself, which they labelled as robust?

Now I am quite set against this government, I think they have deeply divided a nation over a war that was founded on lies and deceptive political games. So with that in mind I may be biased, but this seems to be somewhat of an abuse of power to me, those in power have failed to substantiate their allegations, and instead of retracting them are blaming the person who was found innocent, "of bringing them into disrepute"?

I can assure them they are already in disrepute, I'm not sure how much further they can go

It will be interesting to see if the House votes to support the recommendation though although it might give rise to a lively debate I suspect it will.

It appears he is being punished not for any wrongdoing but for upsetting the sensibilities of the committee members investigating him.

In his interview he made a couple of very valid points

He said there was "grotesque irony" that Parliament had refused to hold a full inquiry into the Iraq war, but had spent four years "inquiring into one of the leaders of the anti-war movement"

and

He also said, referring to cash-for-honours claims and the recent attendance of a convicted rapist at a party fundraising event, that "the people in the building behind me are the last people on earth to criticise" anyone over funding for political campaigns